penalty. >> his hesitance -- pat, back to you. your hesitance to prescribe a punishment tells me you have a problem calling this in effect, legally, murder. >> is it murder? >> it is the killing of an innocent unborn. >> is it murder? >> you mean does it meet the definition of murder? i think it does -- >> why don't you punish the woman, then? >> because the abortionist does it. she's a participant in it but i think she's a victim. >> thank you. you're hedging, hedging. >> no, i think you are. "countdown" with keith olbermann starts right now. which of these stories will you be talking about tomorrow? >> the motion is agreed to. >> now what? are the democrats and health care reform in the senate in deep trouble, as howard dean says, or are there rabbits to be pulled from a hat full of senators, some republicans, some democrats still wavering? >> i will not vote in favor of the proposal that has been introduced by leader reid as it

is written. >> behold, senator lincoln, what you want to preserve in your home state. the free health clinic in little rock. 1,001 patients seen. plus, their family members. 2 of them had had heart attacks and did not even know. 69% of them either get no regular medical care or only go to e.r.s. 24% had not seen a physician in more than five years. 9% in more than ten years. some, senator, some are kansans, on your watch. no idea. >> i can't even remember. years. just if i get really, really sick, i think i'm about to die, i go to the emergency room. otherwise, i just have to rough it. >> the conservative loyalty oath. republican national committee members being asked to add here to and distribute a ten point purt checklist to make sure they are right wing enough. sufficiently reagan-like. but it turns out ronald reagan would have failed the test. ronald reagan was a democrat?

worsts, beck and limbaugh both call senator mary landrieu a, quote, prostitute. and "saturday night live" blows up the divine sister sarah, done so subtly that her supporters think it was pro palin satire directed against the first name you will see here. >> people are scared. all the news and commentary now on "countdown." >> thanks but no thanks. good evening from new york. if the original idea had been to give all americans the same health insurance that members of congress get, the bill about to be debated in the senate instead proposing to do the opposite. elected lawmakers would reportedly be given the same choices that ordinary americans would get under whatever public exchange is set up in the final

legislation. fifth story in the "countdown," does that mean ordinary americans, members of senate would be left with no insurance if they drop the public option from the bill or fail to pass a bill? could we get medicare passed for all unanimously. saturday 60-39 paving the way for debate to begin. not a single republican voted for the bill to be debated. not one. not even senator snowe. "the new york times" reporting the white house and senate democratic leaders still court senators snowe and collins. conservative democrats remain the most likely suspects to kill the bill altogether. >> let me be perfectly clear. i am opposed to a new government-administered health care plan as part of comprehensive health care insurance reform and i will not vote in favor of the proposal that has been introduced by leader reid as it is written. >> my voted to to move forward on this important debate should in no way be construed by the

supporters of this current framework as an indication of how i might vote as this debate comes to an end. >> i mean, we could negotiate a public option of some sort that i might look at. but i don't want a big government, washington-run operation that would undermine the 200 -- the insurance -- private insurance that 200 million americans now have. >> i don't think anybody thinks this bill will pass as written. >> you said you will not vote for it as a matter of conscience, you would filibuster it if that stays in. >> if the public option is still in there, the only resort we have is to say no at the end to reporting the bill off the floor. >> senator lincoln meanwhile has tonight for the first time address s. what she would like to see in the bill. to that in a moment. here comes the hard part. keeping the four conservatives happy without watering the bill so much that the progressive base will no longer support it. democratic sources saying the

leadership started feeling out the caucus for two compromises, one that trigger offered buy senator snowe, a nonprofit public plan would kick in or be triggered only if private insurance failed to offer affordable kochblg by a certain date. the other offered by senator carper of delaware calling his plan the hammer, it would work like snowe's trigger option but allow states to opt into a plan. admitting it's still fuzzy. neither would seem to win the support of independent senator bernie sanders of vermont who said -- governor howard dean, dr. dean, also of vermont, former chair of the dnc today saying he sees virtually no path to passing strong legislation, the governor telling the huffington post the senate democratic leadership is, quote, in deep trouble if it allowed four conservative senators to water down the bill or defeat it altogether, it could lead to primary challenges or a drop in support from the party's base.

quoting him -- why indeed. one democrat in the house now looking to make procedural votes a little easier in the senate, congressman allen grayson starting an online petition to get senator reid to change the ruffles the senate to require only 55 votes to invoke cloture instead of the current 60. that sounds unpresent dented or unlikely. invoking cloture used to require 67 votes. the senate reduced the number to 60 in 1975. time to call in once again senator sheldon whitehouse of rhode island who co-wrote the public option in the health care bill. thanks for your time tonight. >> thank you, keith. good to be with you. >> is it as blunt as this, don't tamper further with the public option or you lose -- if you don't tamper further with the

public option you lose the four conservative democrats? and if you do tamper further with the public option you lose sanders and burris and maybe others. >> i think there's more room to maneuver. i think everyone has a chance to have their say, call for the votes, make their argument, when the dust is settled, they're in a slightly different position than at the very beginning. and i think if people go through that whole process and then want to take their ball and go home, that's a very different thing than having never been heard. i also think there's some room around the details of the public option between opt-in and opt-out and trigger. i, for one, am not particularly concerned about the names. i would like to see the public option as available as possible. and there may be room for a compromise, for instance, with senator snowe about a trigger that actually does better in terms of reach for the public option. i'm supporting the leader reid's bill. i think it's a good one.

i think we should stick with it. but i don't think that it's beyond the pale to think about how to implement the public option in alternative way. >> base sond what you said and senator ben nelson said and something senator lincoln spoke at a jobs event in arkansas, i'm wondering, is there some measure of this which people want to be able to say, i spoke my peace and then supported an only slightly water erred-down bill. what senator lincoln said tonight -- i know i'm catching you cold on this but this is a summary from the speech. when asked what she'd like to see in the bill, protect medicare and medicaid, look at inefficiencies, cut out extra spending, small businesses should be represented in the final legislation. wants the senate to look hard at what a public option would bring for future taxpayers. on the underlying bill she said should include strong insurance reforms that would address customer rating as well as gender as well as preexisting conditions. she says, in essence, here, she

wants these positions raised, not necessarily the bill altered to match her position exactly. is there some undercurrent of that in some of the tepid support for this bill? >> yeah. and i also think that all of the points that she's raised are very easy to negotiate and discuss. there's nothing that's highly controversial. they're all very logical kernels for somebody to have, particularly on the public option which she's really focused in on is its effect on future taxpayers. well, the senate h.e.l.p. bill solves that. so, you know, i think as we talk through this, we may find there's more room than presently seems. >> then can you address governor dean's pessimism, which is heretofore not been expressed and seemingly expressed pretty profoundly today? he's sort of viewing this, i think to summarize what he said, a kind of lose/lose situation at

the moment. >> i think this may be one of those moments when it's more discouraging from the outside looking in than it looks when you're there in the middle of the discussions, when you've seen all the senators in caucus together. when you've heard from president clinton and others coming in and reminding us how important this is to get through. and when you see that, you know, elements like the public option remain extremely popular with the american public. i just feel a lot more confident than howard dean does, and i think it may be because i have a slightly different perspective and i'm a little bit more -- git getting the inside view. >> one of the few advantages being in the belly of the beast at the particular moment. i hope you're entirely correct. senator sheldon whitehouse of rhode island, thank you for the encouragement. thanks for your time. for more on the politics of this, turn to arianna huffington, co-founder, chief of the huffington post.com.

good evening, arianna. address what senator whitehouse just said, behind the scenes this looks much more optimistic than it does on face value. >> well, i'm glad he feels that way. but, remember, keith, that's how they have been feeling on senator max baucus's committee for many long wasted weeks when they were negotiating with the republicans, including senator grassley, when he wasn't busy passing around glenn beck books and telling us that they were going to pull the plug on grandma. >> address these comments that i just quoted from senator lincoln here. is it possible that what she's looking for is something she can take back to arkansas and say, i did this myself here, i guaranteed something? is she looking for something, some small island to stand on and nothing more than that? >> well, you know, keith, she was so unequivocal on saturday on the floor of the senate when she said, i cannot vote for something that is basically a

government-run health care program. that's what she called it. and that includes the public option. so i don't know how she retreats from that. i certainly hope she's willing to retreat from that. but i think it's very unlikely. i think it's really important for democrats to be really clear and unambiguous about what they will accept, what they will not accept, and to stop trying to believe that they can move people along, because so far they have been incredibly unsuccessful. >> there's one point that was made and i believe it was made by a poster at daily coast today and i thought it was a very intriguing point, that this entire argument from the republican side that this idea of health care or any kind of health care reform, the passage of any kind of health care reform will doom the democrats and the republicans will have something to run on next year and 2012 is in fact a total red herring, that if the republicans thought that any health care reform was going to sink the democrats, they'd let the democrats pass something, that their goal is entire nothing

and, therefore, the democrats should be happy with anything. what do you think of that? >> well, i don't think the democrats should be happy with anything, because look at the education reform. remember no child left behind. it turned out to be a complete disaster. so what happens now. if the democrats accept anything and especially if they accept it to be prolonged ununtil 2014, which is a point that governor dean made to huffington post today, that would be really problematic because what that means is basically republicans are going to notice, as will everybody in the country, that nothing much has changed and they're going to attack this as another government takeover that has not worked. so the only way that democrats can win, if they really demand real reform. and they can do it, keith, simply by asking senator reid to go for reconciliation, which

basically means to go for a simple majority. they have a simple majority. they already have 51 senators who have committed to vote for abill that includes a public option. without a public option, there is no real cost containment. there is no real competition for the health care industry. so why go for something that will not be real reform? >> but given that conciliation is still budget conciliation or budget reconciliation, in point of fact and all you can pals with 51 votes is what relates directly to spending, budgeting, is that final product going to be just as watered down, just in different ways than a bill that has been stretched out to get 60 votes? >> no, i don't think so. because it will include this essential element of competition for the health care industry. without that element, keith, really, there is no real reform. there's absolutely no guarantee that the industry will behave any differently than it's

behaved so far. >> arianna huffington of the huffington post which has the great interview with a not so happy dr. dean today. thank you, arianna. once again nothing speaks to the urgent need of health care reform in this country right now than offering a taste of it to some of our neighbors almost literally starving for its lack. neither of two of the patients at the free health clinic you paid for in little rock on saturday knew what was wrong with them. you each was told as gently as possible as ambulances were readied to take them to the hospital. you have had a heart attack. text-out-loud-reading, turn-by-turn-direction- giving sync® system ...in the all-new taurus from ford. (beep) (sync® voice) please say a command. read message. (sync® voice) highway 8 closed. update route. (sync® voice) turn right on silver road. (announcer) we speak car. we speak innovation. introducing the all-new taurus from ford. drive one.

i hired him to speak. a lot of fortune 500 companies use him. but-i'm your only employee. we're going to start using fedex to ship globally- that means billions of potential customers. we're gonna be huge. good morning! you know business is a lot like football. i just don't understand... i'm sorry dick butkus (announcer) we understand. your business could use a pep talk. visit fedex.com/peptalk had the latter attended the event she could not in all human conscience hold out any further. we'll take you and her there and be joined by nicole of the national association of free clinics. "snl" blows up sarah palin. and the tea partiers laugh at the story of a woman and her

unborn child killed by lack of insurance.

if any united states senators or congressmen had not seen a doctor ten years or more because the current system mate that literally impossible health care reform would have been done 11 years ago. if any of those lawmakers had chronic conditions that became untreatable because there was no affordable health insurance available it would have been solved an hour after diagnosis. the urgency made obvious as the free health fair in little rock, arkansas, treated more than 1,000 people in one day. this was the second free clinic paid for in large part by you the "countdown" viewers.

volunteers at saturday's clinic finding 69% of the patients either do not go anywhere for medical care or are forced to rely on emergency rooms like this woman. >> a month or so ago, i had landed in the emergency room with a bladder and kidney infection. they said i needed follow-up care. i wasn't able to get it. so i came today to take care of it. i work part-time at home depot. but i'm a single mom with three moms and i'm not able to afford the insurance. i have other priorities, staying on our feet. can't do it. >> the last time ms. jafy had seen a doctor? >> i can't even remember. years. just if i get really, really sick, where i think i'm about to die, i go to the emergency room. otherwise, i just have to rough it. >> her attitude for that clinic evident, but she was hardly alone. 90% of saturday's patients had not been examined in more than

ten years. another 20% in not more than five years. seven were sent immediately to the hospital. two had had heart attacks and did not even know it. >> she had some concerns that we could not handle in this one-day clinic and felt like it needed more emergent evaluation. i feel like she's going to get good care and get good evaluation. i think provided she gets that access that she'll do well. >> the access that a patient needs is precisely part of this problem. >> the health care system is, in my opinion, broken. when people don't have insurance, much of that is absorbed by the hospital, but makes all health care costs rise for every -- all the other payers. our system is not designed to manage and treat long term chronic medical problems. >> chronic medical problems like diabetes. 21 people newly diagnosed just with that on saturday. another problem, not commonly raised but all too common, college graduates in limbo.

>> he's a typical graduate from college who has not been able to find work yet and he doesn't have health care insurance and the health care insurance is so expensive. so he's one of those that's uninsured right now. >> the ultimate irony, one woman who, like 83% of those who use free clin ibs, is employed but cannot afford health insurance. she ask that he r. that she not be identified for fear of losing her job. her employer does not provide health benefits. she works for a health insurance company. turn to the executive director of national asocial of free clinics. good evening. congratulations. >> thank you for having me. >> arkansas senator blanch lincoln was commenting. she said -- lg.

>> has the senator gotten the point or missed it? >> we've never claimed these one day health clinics were a sustainable answer. one of the things i think the senator missed is every day in arkansas there are free clinics in community health centers and safety net providing quality health care to the uninsured. but when 1,000 people have to showed up at a convention center because they do not have access to health care, that is something that needs to be 5:00 knowledged. >> she just proved why she should vote yet for the thorough health reform because of her point it's not sustainable for this not to be the only safety net. to that point, we've now done two of these with you, assisting you, one in little rourke and one earlier in new orleans. has anything surprised you? any new information you can glean anecdotally based on these two events? >> i think the things that surprised me the most were

these. we stopped three suicides. people thinking of taking their own life. the only thing that stopped them was coming to a one day health clinic. the two heart attacks you spoke about. those are walking time bombs that could be easily addressed if people had access to quality health care. the other thing, the gratitude of the patients as well as the volunteers that came those days. >> i don't want to go too deeply into the politics or the details of the senate bill that is now being debated. but is there anything in it that will help your organization particularly reach more people? is there anything that will backstop free clinics and make them stronger and more vibrant and let ultimately necessary but still a component? >> no. quite frankly, there is nothing in the senate bill -- there was nothing in the house bill. and in the senate bill we would

like to be named as an essential provider. it will only help strengthen the current medical community as well as help the 8 million patients that we're seeing right now. >> two-day event in kansas city as the graphic shows on the 9th and 10th. >> at bartle hall in kansas city. this is america's heartland. we're excited because this will be bigger than what we've done before. on top of the medical exams and labs we'll be having, we'll do mental health screenings and dental care as well. we're encouraging patients as well as volunteers to go to freeclinics.us to get more information. we're encouraging volunteers. as rick stockwell spoke about, coming to the events will change your life. >> nicole lamb row. she is one of the people who can

truly sleep soundly as this debate rainings around us. that the republican party is betting the existence that we can go to the nation and say we kept health care unchanged is a neutral fact and it's underscored again by the revelation of a conservative loyalty oath. ten things members of the gop national committee must do or become enemies of the ghost of ronald reagan. number two is support market-based health care reform and oppose obama-style. number nine oppose rationing and denial of health care and government funding of abortion. only one problem of course with that reagan litmus test for true conservatives, 8 out of 10 required. reagan would have failed.

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loyalty oath to make them more conservative, more reaganesque. nobody noticed, reagan would have failed, missed six out of ten. top three best persons in the world. date line week ridge, colorado, best business decision. phil wolf, owner of wolf automotive off i-70 in wheat ridge put up a new billboard. the president in a turban with the legend president or jihad and wake up, america, remember ft. hood. it demands the president produce his birth certificate again. your friendly neighborhood of jeeps, hatred, paranoia and racism says i wanted to bring more attention to this. several death threats later and

for the record not even somebody as hateful as this guy deserves a single death threat, he got the attention he hoped for and shocked anybody thinks he's a racist because he once voted for alan keyes. date line washington, number two best evidence you skipped logic class, star parker, columnist at townhall.com linking possible increase of or approval of same-sex marriage in washington to the increased spread of hiv. she writes -- ms. parker is thus either operating on the assumption unmarried gay men do not have sex or that the marriage would increase promiscuity among gay men. ms. parker is not very bright. date line new york, number one best -- on top of the grave you dug for your career, lou dobbs. on cnn on 2005 he erroneously reported 7,000 cases of leprosy in the u.s. in a three-year span

attributed to undocumented immigrants. in fact 17,000 in the entire country attributed to everybody in a 30-year span. he was confronted about this during an interview with the telemundo interview. he lied. maybe the fourth time they corrected it but in 2007 dobbs had been con fronted about the same sloppy prejudiced crap and he defended the lie to "60 minutes." lesley stahl said --

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after republican tea baggers undercut and sabotaged moderate republican candidate dede scozzafava in new york, some members of the republican national committee made a plan to make the party bigger, kick more out. during it in the name of ronald reagan except the plan they chose would have resulted in them kicking out ronald reagan. a proposed resolution says president reagan considered his friends those he agreed with 80%. it would deny funding to any that didn't agree with 80% of

principles. one, smaller government. two oppose health care reform. three oppose cap and trade. four oppose card check. five oppose amnesty. six support military calls like troop surges. eight, support defense of marriage act. nine, oppose health care rationing and ban federal funding for abortion. such as former senator lincoln chafee, no longer a republican. senator arlen specter, no longer a republican, and scozzafava herself. who else would fail the reagan litmus test? number one reagan expanded the government taxes and deficit, supported amnesty. ignored the military recommendation to pull out of beirut. number seven, sold weapons to iran. number eight opposed california's anti-gay prop six and hosted the first openly gay sleepover at the white house. number ten, signed a gun control law in california and supported the brady bill after he and his

press secretary were shot. president reagan, 4 out of 10. welcome back to the democratic party, sir. with us tonight democratic strategist chris kofinis. thanks for your time tonight. stuff like this, measuring your standing in a political party versus its past greats, that probably goes back to andrew jackson and the early democrats. isn't the first rule of it, though, pretty obvious, fix your tests? stack it so the guy you're comparing everybody else to would have gotten 100%, not 40%? >> it is kind of ironic that ronald reagan would fail the apparent ronald reagan test. but this is kind of a statement of where the republican party is today that they're even discussing these kind of purity tests. it is a party that is completely out of touch with mainstream america. when you see these type of purity tests, it just reinforces it. they seem to be kind of trapped in this model of trying to find new innovative ways to self destruct. maybe put it another way,

they're subscribing to thunderdome politics. two republicans go in, one conservative out of touch republican comes out. it is not a recipe for electoral success. i do not understand why they seem to keep choosing to go down this path, at least -- or even discuss going down this path. >> is there a better way, can you think off the top of your head, to make the party more open or more successful or just larger? >> yeah. don't do purity tests. i mean, it's really simple. a purity test especially one that is this out of whack with reality, even for the republican party, let alone for ronald reagan, kind of the equivalent of a chastity belt. we know how that works. it doesn't make any sense. you end up alienating the very voters you're trying to attract because you set up artificial criteria about who you decide is qualified to be part of the republican party. it is orwellian that the republican party would even be discussing this. but given where they are right now in the country, even with

the various troubles that the country faces, they still have not been able to capitalize. i would argue the reason is they continue to find ways to alienate themselves with the very voters they're trying to attract. >> you build up a false reality. these are the same folks that propose the resolution that would have the rnc members refer to the democratic party as the democrat-socialist party and michael steele had to talk them down from that one. have they gotten more powerful in projecting their own vision of the world over the majority vision of the world? >> i think they've gotten more vocal. i mean, they seem to be the ones that are only -- the ones that are shouting in the republican party and that seems to scare the republican party, including folks like michael steele. and they just freeze. i mean, the reality is the leadership of the republican party sees these elements, these birthers, these tea-partiers, they see them as the grassroots of the republican party. because they've been vocal and active and ginned up by glenn

beck, sarah palin and others, they're unwilling to stand up to them. the problem is now they're a prisoner to them. until they realize you cannot appeal to moderates if you're simply trying to appease the most radical out of touch elements of your party, they're going to continue to deep this rabbit hole deeper and deeper. so michael steele, i think, is probably in a tough position, but it is a tough position that he has made for himself and the party has made for themselves because they're unwilling to stand up to people who clearly don't understand politics. >> and counting. they don't understand counting. you have to have more votes than the other guy. democratic strat jils chris kofinis, veteran counter, tonight welcoming ronald reagan back into the democratic fold. great thanks. >> welcome to ronald reagan. thanks, keith. the willful self delusion is so powerful some on the far right think saturday night was complimenting sister sarah. what they saw wasn't a palin presidency followed by an apock limbs. what they saw was an apocalypse followed by a palin presidency.

they're in favor of that. there are no conservative feminists. beck and limb baugh both call landrieu a prostitute and no right wing woman complains, let alone demands they be fired. on the rachel maddow show, the state ethics report is on governor appalachian trail samford and it found only 37 violations. 37. well played, sir! . now, the president and congress are moving forward... with reform that includes the best ideas. backed by america's physicians. nurse leaders and nurse practitioners. america's hospitals. prohibiting cuts to medicare benefits. protecting your choice of health care professional. covering preventive care, and closing the prescription gap, to reduce out-of-pocket costs. ♪ but i didn't know that it may have led to my erectile dysfunction.

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a correction i misnamed a telemundo correspondent who got lou dobbs. maria seles. my apologies to her. sister sarah skew erred on "saturday night live." first the worsts, tea partiers laugh at a woman as she announces the death of her daughter and grandson due to lack of insurance. bek unveils his plan, which he calls the plan. all right, when you look at the future

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with incoherent mystical visions it's hard to tell. to reporters and everybody else in the mainstream treating this seriously, what are you doing? we have another free health clinic on saturday, more than 1,000 assisted and paid for fully by viewers of this show. instead of wondering about the implications of that you're covering a guy from the university of i don't remember who announced a plan which he has entitled the plan. the runner-up, orly taitz limbaugh. gretchen carlson complained if you're a conservative woman you have more attacks than if you have a republican point of view. they have evened that out in a hurry, each speaking of senator landrieu of louisiana and even called her a whore. beck -- o limbaugh -- he's an expert. the next day i say something about michelle bach mann being a bag of mashed up meat with lipstick and called sex ills by

conservatives because i use lipstick even though on the football show i use the exact same frals about men only don't use lipstick and it was the one word joke by sarah palin, remember beck and limbaugh happily called a sitting u.s. senator prostitute and not a single conservative woman has as much agreed with them. ms. carlson, where is your umbrage now, you fraud? our winner, of mt. greenwood in chicago, organizer of what is described as a tea party splinter group. as if they all weren't splinter groups. chicago tea party patriots. a couple dan and mitch hoff spoke out in favor of health care reform. they told how their daughter-in-law and unborn child did not have insurance. so she did not get prenatal care and her pneumonia turned into double pneumonia and septic shock. the baby died in the womb. the daughter-in-law jenny died two weeks later. she left a husband and 2-year-old daughter and her in-laws told this story as an example of the current health

care system at its worst. and the tea party slobs not only interrupted them and made fun of them and rolled their eyes but this woman sent out an e-mail calling the huffs obama operatives who had fabricated the story of the deaths and, quote, go from event to event and cry the same story. after a local newspaper reporter verified the huff's account, she defended herself saying the protesters were frustrated by the isolated tragedies that get in the way of the bill. it's isolated until they happen to you or until you become a human being again rather than a manipulated tool of big business and fearmongering and shapeless, hopeless greed and selfishness, because if any of the world's major religions are right, ma'am, you and for what you and the other people did to the huffs, you're going to hell. of chicago tea party patriots, today's worst person in the world.

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the man who was effectively john mccain's campaign manager served it up like the proverbial softball. steve schmidt said if she were the republican nominee, 2012 would be a catastrophic election. sister sarah denied to make a speech on army base but solicit political contributions while signing books there. "saturday night live" decided to illustrate the motion picture possibilities. the goi"going rogue" tour bus. but a ft. bragg spokesman says palin falls into a gray area because she's not a political figure per se. so instead the military offered her a compromise, no speeches, no posing for pictures, no personalized messages in books.

but as associated press reports, that did not stop the palin camp from encouraging donations to her political action committee. people used to be afraid of us and respect us. they're not afraid of us and don't respect us anymore. i guess he's in touch with kim jong-il. to the mayan calendar's warning of armageddon and the chronicling of civilization end s ndl pitched perfect. >> good evening from capitol hill. what a day this has been! the nation has a new president.

>> sarah palin. >> thank you so much. >> people are scared. >> i don't know what i'm going to be doing in 2012. >> as for my running mate -- it was an honor to stand beside a true american hero. >> i'm sorry. i'm just a guy who cares an awful lot about my country. >> holy -- >> thanks but no thanks on that bridge to nowhere.

>> see, but that's not how i imagine it. in my imagination, it's really bad. joining me now msnbc political analyst, author of "renegade, the making of a president" richard wolffe. good to see you in the flesh. stipulating that i was zinged in there in out loud fashion and/or complimented at the same time. some on the right interpreted this as a compliment to sarah palin. how exactly? >> god bless them. they attesting to the extreme there is no such thing as bad publicity. the real disaster movie for the republicans is if she runs, let's face it, because either she's the nominee and most of the american people say that she would actually be a disaster and can't see her as president or she runs, she fails to get it, you have all of these disappointed grassroots people who then have to cheer for tim

pawlenty or mitt romney. that would be a horror movie. >> one of the interpretations i read was that when you see this, it's obviously she's been elected or inaugurated, then there's an apocalypse. they decided to look at it the other way, there's an apocalypse and sarah palin saves the country after the apocalypse, which is apparently okay on people on the far, far, far, far, far, far right. >> that's one big tea party, that's what that was. >> a prophecy fulfillment. >> why she said all of those jews will be going to israel. >> flocking. >> in the days and months. >> months, weeks, days to come, in that order. the event at ft. bragg today, she -- obviously, she's waved military flags like she invented the gun -- the gatling gun. why not follow the rules? because clearly they bent them to do some politicizing there when they were told not to. >> you and your pesky rules. don't you know that only dead fish go with the flow?

there is a new set of rules for sarah palin. i mean, she did quit being governor of alaska for a reason. i'm not quite sure what the reason was. but in any case, the bigger issue here i think politically -- because she does have political advisers -- is wrapping yourself in the flag. it's easy. it's a simple talking point. it's trite but works for many people. problem is, it didn't work for george bush in 2006. it didn't work for john mccain, a decorated war hero in 2008. why would it work for someone who hasn't served in the military, running against the commander in chief in 20121234. >> as she saw in the newsweek cover, she looks good in red. on a serious note, frank rich wrote this in "the new york times." palin is far and away the most important brand in american politics after barack obama and attention must be paid. what kind of attention is actually appropriate in the situation. >> >> as much as possible. if she is a serious politician -- and clearly there are thousands of people who are treating her as a serious politics -- then the press needs to do its job.

scrutinize all her statements. compare them, contrast them with what she said before. fact check them against reality. that's the kind of scrutiny she's inciting now. we'll see if she's up to it. >> then the problem becomes what if her supporters don't believe in reality. this is a big question to ask as a news show concludes. but take 45 seconds and answer it. who is her parallel in american history? is she barry goldwater? is shehuy long? who is she? >> i think she is ross perot without the charts and the ears and maybe the billion yonls. she is trying to tap in. -- look what she put in her seminal text, which is the facebook entry. it is a conscious avocation of everything that happens so successfully and wonderfully for ross perot, not once but twice. >> millions, she got it up front, right? because hare r. she's not going to get it if they sell